I have been coaching children for almost two decades. I used to have a habit of always putting myself last. In my mind, the children always came first and I was willing to sacrifice my own time to support children no matter the consequence for my mental health.

My advice after many years of this yo-yo faulty thinking is that if you are doing the same thing, you are heading for burnout....just like me...

So just stop it!! That's what I had to do but I learnt the hard way. It took me hitting rock bottom in terms of my health before I realised that I needed to practice self care first over and above anything else. I was getting my priorities all wrong!

When your mobile phone is flat you charge it.

The same goes for you!

Every single day you should be doing something relaxing to keep your “battery trickle charged” I make time for myself everyday now. I start my day with a little yoga...and I have a walk at lunch time whenever I am able to. I go to bed every night reading a...

A decade ago...when faced with residual trauma...I threw myself into my work and lost sight of who I was and why I was doing the work I was doing....I burnt out! As a Kids Life Coach this is not a good place to be!

I lost the essence of me...

It has taken many years of personal development work and inner resourcefulness and changing belief systems that were not serving me to get to the space where I am now.

A space where I am still healing but where I feel strong enough to face life’s challenges with confidence.

Although I LOVE my work as an authority in the field of peak performance, leadership and resilience in children...how could I possibly give of my best if I wasn’t looking after me?

I have dealt with my trauma and still continue to work on things when the “gremlins” rear their heads. You see life has a way of sending us the exact lessons we need to heal and grow. When we ignore them...they will keep coming...this doesn’t make us victims...

A big...

I have been unapologetically quiet!! ....I get like that when I am in “new” mode!! Are you the same?

Whenever I start a new project, I like to put my head down and stay focused!

I have quietly been working behind the scenes to continue making Kids Life Coaching an acceptable mainstream intervention. This has meant taking a BIG scary step that has pushed me waaaaaayyyyyy out of my comfort zone!

I was told a short while ago

“To change the system you need to be part of the system”

So with this incentive in mind....I have gone back to school and I am a University student again, doing my MSC in Clinical Child Psychology in Cambridge, England. The last time I studied was 15 years ago when I did my Honours Degree and boy oh boy how things have changed! I am loving the new journey despite feeling rather overwhelmed at times! I guess this is very much how some of our students enrolled in our Kids Life Coach Academy training feel!

As the founder of The Kids Life...

I have been coaching children since 2003 and I have always felt confident in my results. There have been tines where I have really struggled to achieve breakthrough for various reasons....but I quickly realised it was virtually impossible for me to do damage as a Kids Life Coach! 

If you’ve been through my Kids Life Coach training, or if you’re going to go through my training you will quickly learn how strongly I feel about attaching “labels” to children!

I believe labels are useful when we need a diagnosis to get treatment.

I believe when we attach labels there is a risk of them sticking and becoming an excuse for bad behaviour.

I believe sometimes therapists use labels to pre-determine an outcome because that’s what the text book says.

I believe labels deny the fact that we are multi-dimensional humans.

I believe labels can prompt peole to lose hope.

So let’s look at your role....Can you do damage as a Kids Life Coach? 

Well....I am...

I have noticed a change in narrative in a few Kids Life Coaches/prospective students I come into contact with.

Since Covid lockdown and a shift in global energy, I have been hearing and seeing so much fear, negativity and apathy. Mostly related to money. 

It is to be expected with what our world is currently facing. There is lots of scaremongering and as a consequence lots of uncertainty as to what is truth and what isn’t.

To stay up to date and “protect” ourselves and make better choices, we have been forced to “consume” more media with the side effect and risk of being swept into the unfolding Covid drama....

It takes real discipline to stay on track!!

There are quite a few of our Kids Life Studio brand ambassadors who have flourished as coaches during this time! They have obtained more clients than before Covid, and their secret....

They DO NOT make excuses.

I never hear them saying anything negative! They maintain positivity and keep doing what...

I believe that one of my super powers as the founder of The Kids Life Studio is that I always swim in my own lane! So often I see professionals cross boundaries and step outside of their professional remit.

I love working alongside medical professionals who understand the value of collaboration and a multi-disciplinary approach.

I do what I do best.....equip and empower children with a tangible life skills toolkit and therapists do what they do best....support and enable children to move through trauma and mental health challenges.

It’s a win-win when professional collaboration happens!

However.  Not ALL medical professionals are open to working alongside a Kids Life Coach.

In my opinion this could be because of one of 3 things:

1. They are ignorant and uninformed.

2. They are insecure and fear being undermined.

3. They are fuelled by ego and don’t respect anybody they don’t consider their “equal”.

I am working towards making Kids Life Coaching...

When I started coaching children in 2003, I didn’t realise just how important it was to keep track with published well documented and evidence based research to validate my approach. 

Only in 2009 I started actually formalising the evidence of my success with the children I coached through our online lifestyle assessment. 

But...

Our website was hacked and I lost all the data!!

So I started from scratch and in 2012 I (finally) presented two research papers.

One in Barcelona at an Education conference and one at Oxford University at a Global Childhood Conference. 

It was then that I realised just how well received Kids Life Coaching was. I saw the HUGE potential for change to a “system” that doesn’t always cater for children’s needs adequately.

The Psychologists, Doctors and Psychiatrists who attended my  presentations gave me consistent feedback as to how “needed” and necessary this “new” approach was....